Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Not As Part 'A Me


I specifically remember as a child, my mother breaking open packets of Sweet-N-Low in her iced tea. Of course, I was using sugar because it just tasted better. Then there was the day that I saw her switch to NutraSweet. A lot of advances have come in the realm of artificial sweeteners over the last 20 years. We now have Alitame and Sucralose on top of Saccharine, Acesulfame-K and Aspartame. Going on low-carb diets at different times in my life, the latter and Sucralose have been very helpful in cutting our sugar.

But last week, after a long time of looking at too many weird reports on Aspartame (from side-effects, FDA approval and chemical decomposition), I am seeing how long that I can avoid the stuff. Yes, that means reading more labels. The Diet Coke that I have every morning as my form of caffeine is now the Splenda version (or regular Coke at a drive-thru.) I see that most of my intake was coming from beverages. Do I believe all the stuff that I read online? Not really. I wanted to make a change and try something different and see the effect for myself. I do have to say that I'm not eating as much... which is kinda odd.

1 comment:

LoraLoo said...

The way I see it, I'm going to be well preserved for at least ten years after I'm dead, considering all the preservatives I've been ingesting my whole life.

I too consume pretty much all the Aspartame in my diet sodas. How funny that you're not eating as much with the change, considering sugar in it's pure form is supposed to be the appetite stimulant.